Daily News Edtorial

A resolute step by the President

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, no doubt, would receive the ringing endorsement of all law abiding citizens for the sentiments he has expressed on eliminating underworld crime. Addressing security and police top brass at the Presidential Secretariat, the President was unequivocal in pointing to the various lapses in the system that allowed underworld crime to thrive, particularly drug related crime masterminded from behind prison walls by drug barons serving sentences.

He pulled no punches in blaming certain shortcomings in the law enforcement in this regard. With justifiable indignation the President noted that despite high ranking police officers being entrusted with the custodial care of prisoners, criminal activity continued to be directed from prisons. He said he was determined to end the wave of underworld crime via the prisons and would spare no individual whatever his position, rank or political affiliations found aiding and abetting criminal elements, in his mission to end the menace of killings and drug related crime.

Citizens who are aware of the record of President Rajapaksa who, as Defence Secretary launched a crackdown on the underworld in Colombo would hardly doubt his commitment in this respect. Besides, President Rajapaksa today has all the top officers who helped him win the war, on his side, if he decides to enlist the services or expertise of the military to eradicate the underworld monster that has grown out of proportion.

True, there are top police officers whose dedication to fight the criminal underworld is well-known, who even risk their lives. But it is an open secret that certain men in khaki work hand in glove with drug lords and criminals, besmirching the image of the entire force. During the recent coronavirus curfew a police officer was found transporting drugs in his vehicle while a senior prison officer is currently under probe for assisting an underworld drug king pin run his business from his prison cell.

A newspaper yesterday reported an incident where a bribe of Rs.500,000 was being paid to some jailors to smuggle mobile phones into the cells of certain prisoners serving time on drug offences. In fact, the President during the discussion stressed that prisoners should not have access to mobile phones and SIM cards and that prison officials should make sure this is the case.

Over the years the media had carried reports of the goings in the dark underbelly of prison life where incarcerated drug barons and police officers/jailors figured prominently. It is this subterranean layer that has been found to be responsible for even contract killings outside prison walls (it is from a prison cell that the contract to kill High Court Judge Sarath Ambeptiya was given).

For a majority of those behind prison bars, with drug money to throw around, the prisons have become a home away from home. Even provincial level politicians are known to be in the pay of the drug lords. The revelations made by the notorious underworld drug king pin Makandure Madush on politicians, following his arrest, tell a tale.

Hence, the President’s assertion that he would not spare any politicians in his fight against the drug underworld is most welcome because most citizens feel it is their influence that permits the drug lords to operate with impunity and scant regard for the law.

There can be no half- hearted measures in the fight against big time crime. In this respect all arms of the law enforcement, including the Courts and the justice system should work in tandem. We say this because, while the Police may apprehend suspects and haul them before the Courts, more often than not, this is a futile exercise.

To cite an example, one of the suspects involved in the recent shooting at a hotel in Ratmalana was a prime suspect in the killing of cricketer Dananjaya De Silva’s father in 2018, but had since been released on bail to operate with impunity.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, it will be recalled, in his early days as President, earnestly pleaded with all concerned not to scuttle his actions to tackle crime and ensure the people’s welfare and well-being. This is the way to ensure the safety of the people’s lives from marauding criminals on the loose.

True, the courts are compelled to implement the laws as they stand and there are certain technical points and loopholes in the laws that let some rotten elements go scot free. Thus there is a dire need to drastically change the structures of our laws and bring them up to date with modern times and modern requirements, particularly to deal with the prevailing culture of impunity in the criminal underworld of this country.

Ideally, the new Sri Lanka we see, along with the other changes, post-Coronavirus, would also hopefully lead to a country free of crime, vice and drugs. Judging by his pragmatic and swift actions, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is certainly on the right track towards ushering in this cherished objective.

The Island Editorial

Gota’s labours - II

The armed forces, about eleven years ago, wrested control of the areas that had been under the LTTE. However, there are some places where the writ of the state still does not run, as we have argued in a previous comment. They are the country’s prisons, which have become a gated underworld of sorts. Convicted criminals enjoy unbridled freedom there thanks to some corrupt officers. We reported, yesterday, quoting a senior Police Narcotic Bureau officer that convicted underworld figures smuggled in mobile telephones into prisons by paying corrupt officers as much as Rs. 500,000 each. The state pens are also awash with narcotics and other banned items.

Corruption has eaten into the vitals of the prison system because successive governments have let the grass grow under their feet without grasping the nettle. The situation has become so bad that convicts have been carrying out their underworld operations from inside their cells for the last couple of decades. The task of cleansing the prison system is as uphill as the Labours of Hercules. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has had to clean the Augean stables that are our jails that stink to high heaven.

President Rajapaksa seems determined to neutralise the underworld and rid the prisons of corrupt practices that have stood the convicted drug lords and other criminals in good stead. He read the riot act to a group of senior prison officers, at a meeting, on Monday. He spoke plainly, when he told them those who could not carry out their duties and functions properly had to go. He asked how any person with a conscience and an iota of self-respect could allow criminals to smuggle phones into prisons. He gave the officers a choice between reforming themselves and being reformed. That earful was long overdue. The people had given him a mandate to do a job and he would do it, come what may, said the President, pointing out the absurdity of criminals in jail enjoying freedom to do what they are serving prison terms for. He has struck a responsive chord with all law-abiding citizens who live in fear of dangerous criminals.

It is, however, doubtful whether the prison officers will be able to do as the President says. The corrupt elements among them are extremely powerful because of their links to drug cartels and other crime syndicates; they are ready to go to any extent to safeguard their interests.

One may recall that, in 1997, an upright prison officer named Upali Tennakoon suffered a violent death at the hands of an underworld gang because he had been instrumental in tracing drugs and weapons in prison. The prison guards in league with criminals must be traced, arrested and prosecuted if the President’s attempts to prevent criminals serving sentences from running their gangs are to reach fruition.

There is a pressing need for a blanket ban on mobile phones inside prisons, and that should apply to prison officers as well. Cell phone jammers should be installed in all prisons.

Corrupt guards instigate prisoners to violence when the police conduct search operations in prisons. Raids, however, must go on; there is no other way to find drugs, arms and other such banned items that find their way into jails. Precautions, however, must be taken to prevent clashes between convicts and the police during search operations.

The easiest way to trace the corrupt guards in the pay of criminals is to follow the money trail. All prison officers must be made to declare their assets and liabilities annually, and tainted prison officers placed under surveillance. If the existing laws do not provide for such action, new ones must be made.

Daily Mirror Editorial

Why this vicious attack on Saroja Sirisena?

There are severe attacks on the newly appointed Sri Lankan High Commissioner in London Saroja Sirisena. There were several attacks on Ms. Sirisena who climbed the ladder in her profession thanks to her educational and professional qualifications at a relatively young age. The attacks were both personal and professional. Some of the attacks were baseless are not related to her professional duties. Yet this is not the first time that Ms. Sirisena became subject to cruel attacks. There were a series of attacks when she was appointed as the Ambassador to Austria in 2019. However it is clear that these attacked are coming not from outside, but within the diplomatic circle itself.

Responding to the latest attack on Ms. Sirisena, the Sri Lanka High Commissioner-designate to the United Kingdom, Ministry of Foreign Relations on last Friday (29) issued a statement. The statement states, “The attention of the Ministry is drawn to news reports appearing in some newspapers and websites with allegations against the present High Commissioner in the UK, regarding her medical treatment”.

“The Ministry wishes to clarify that the procedure and the payment related expenses in this instance had been approved by the Ministry, in accordance with Ministry Circulars, established procedures and based on precedents, including with respect to such treatment received in third countries. All Government officials contribute to a medical scheme ‘Agrahara’ which they can avail of in Sri Lanka. Similarly, a medical scheme is extended to all home-based officers appointed by the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) to Missions abroad, within which the case under reference was granted approval to proceed with an essential medical procedure.”

Referring to the restrictions on public servants and those in the diplomatic services in responding to media, the Foreign Relations Minister stressed, “It is regretted that public officials who cannot engage with media on personal matters, are maligned and subject to violations of their privacy, including attacks on critical medical issues, as in this case.”

With regard to qualifications, Ms. Sirisena has been in foreign service for over two decades. Having joined the service in 1998, during her career, she has served as the Director General Economic Affairs, Director General Public Diplomacy and Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Relations of Sri Lanka, Consul General of Sri Lanka in Mumbai, Director General for External Relations in the Ministry of Economic Development of Sri Lanka, Director, South Asia and Director, Consular Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Relations of Sri Lanka. Her previous diplomatic posts include Minister Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nations Office in Geneva, Minister Counsellor Sri Lanka Embassy in Brussels and First Secretary Sri Lanka Embassy in Paris. Immediately prior to her appointment in London, she served as the Sri Lankan Ambassador to Austria and as Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations Office in Vienna. A graduate on political science from the University of Melbourne, Australia Ms. Sirisena has completed post graduate studies at the École nationale d’Administration in France. She is also the daughter of reputed Gynaecologist Dr. L. A. W. Sirisena, who is a teacher to a large number of leading medical practitioners serving both here and the world over.

Among her credible interventions to defend Sri Lanka’s integrity was her strong protest last month to the UK based the Guardian newspaper which had posted a questionable quiz in its online edition using the word ‘Eelam’. Published on May 15 the question read-‘Eelam is an indigenous name for which popular holiday island?’ When a reader selects the correct answer which was Sri Lanka, a further description ‘the full name of the island’s recent military insurgency was LTTE – Liberation Tigers for Tamil Eelam’ appeared. Ms. Sirisena immediately protested to the quiz and in a letter to the editor of the publication had questioned the use of the word ‘Eelam’ as an ancient name for Sri Lanka.

Ms. Sirisena in her letter noted that the LTTE is a banned organisation in many countries, including the UK, and it was wrong to promote their ideology in a publication.

Following her intervention, the Guardian removed the controversial quiz.